The focus of the study was on interracial couples and children who survived the turbulent period of apartheid. Thank you for allowing me the privilege of getting to know you and for telling me your stories.
Introduction and Rationale for the Study
Evaluate how selected churches and communities in Natal engaged with couples and family units. Determine the extent to which selected churches and communities in Natal conformed to the status quo and to what extent they resisted.
Literature Review
In addition, many conferences, synods, and church organizations criticized racial segregation, the position of the Dutch Reformed Church, and legislation on race relations. Additionally, there is recent research documenting the presence of interracial relationships in apartheid and post-apartheid society.
Theoretical Framework
Applying the Theoretical Framework…
This study will show that interracial families in situations of repression were able to construct and maintain hidden transcripts that became the infrastructure of their resistance. Through an array of covert tactics, the hidden transcripts of interracial families were able to mask themselves in the public arena without being discovered, despite surveillance and the threat of police brutality.
Research Methodology
- Research Design
- Qualitative Research Method
- The Snowball Sampling Method…
- Inclusion Criteria of Research Participants
- Data Collection
- Research Ethics
Second, since this study is concerned with the role of the churches in the development and maintenance of interracial relationships, only persons belonging to the Christian faith were recruited. It was decided that each interviewee would receive a copy of the interview transcript as a souvenir.
Chapter Outline
Chapter five is a presentation of the experiences of interracial families within their various churches. This chapter includes a critical discussion of the experiences of interracial families within their diverse communities.
Conclusion
During the nearly three centuries of white occupation of the Cape, Dutch settlers made no attempt to legally curb miscegenation37. However, there can be no doubt that miscegenation occurred on a significant scale long before social theory and political pressure combined to eradicate it.39 This chapter examines the social and political context that formed the basis for anti-miscegenation attitudes in Africa. of the South.
Race and Racism
The history of science and genetic studies of the last few decades has failed to justify the existence of biologically different racial groups.42 Scientists have calculated that the average genetic difference between two randomly chosen individuals is 0.2 percent of all the are genes, and that the physical characteristics used to distinguish one race from another—such as skin color, eye color, nose width, and hair—are determined by about 0.01 percent of the genes. By the 19th century, with the rise of Darwinian evolutionary theory and Romantic philosophy's emphasis on the idea of 'nation', the concept of race became a full-fledged ideology.44.
Historical Roots of Racism in South Africa
This new demographic came at a time when ideas of the separation of races were being defined in South Africa. The position of the LMS did not serve the demands and dictates of the colonial economy.
The Law
Cornwell: "The iron rule of endogamy at the core of the concept of caste helps to explain why "miscegenation" was such an obsession among [W]hist South Africans.."53 Another historian, A.L. George Webb Hardy's "The Black Peril" and the social meaning of "black peril" in early twentieth-century South Africa.
The Population Registration Act
In February 1958, the Cape Times reported the Minister of Home Affairs as saying that the Population Registration Act served to help people by removing all uncertainty, unrest and "the cloud that hung over them". In 1967, a Cape Town welterweight boxer, Ronnie van der Walt, received a letter from the Home Office informing him that he was classified as colored under the National Registration Act.
The Group Areas Act
Muriel Horrell argued that the purpose of the law was to prevent "passing" from one group to another.77 According to Van de Berghe, the law served to legally consolidate the racial caste hierarchy of South African society.78 Reddy argued that nationalists had to pass legislation on individual identities along racial and ethnic lines in order to legitimize what seemed to be socially pervading society. Firstly, fear of miscegenation and secondly, because the state despotically imposed racial identities on its citizens, the Population Registration Act allowed the state to act as the final arbiter when these classifications were challenged.79.
An Inconsequential Political Measure
The white partner in the relationship would have to assume the racial classification of the black partner. After reclassification, they could live together legally in the appropriate group area.87 The repeal of the laws regulating interracial relationships was seen as a political maneuver, designed to appease the opponents of apartheid.
Conclusion
Introduction
Goodsell noted that religion, whether mediating, acquiescing or opposing, played an important role in the apartheid battle.92 This chapter will examine the religious context that facilitated the rise and fall of apartheid policies and examine the role of churches and church leaders in shaping and the repeal of laws against interbreeding in South Africa.
Religious Facilitation, Acquiescence and Opposition
- The Dutch Reformed Church
- Social Analysis
- The English-speaking Churches
- The Roman Catholic Church
- Church Bodies and Organizations that Opposed Apartheid
- Church Leaders‟ Involvement in Rescinding Laws
104 General Synod Commission of the Dutch Reformed Church. The story of the Dutch Reformed Church's journey with apartheid. 131 General Synod Commission of the Dutch Reformed Church. The story of the Dutch Reformed Church's journey with apartheid.
Conclusion
The study concluded that the prevalence of interracial marriage in South Africa can be seen as a barometer of social change143. In 1995, Ross conducted six interviews with people who had interracial relationships during the apartheid period.
The Present Study
To date, no study has been done that specifically focuses on the historiography of interracial relationships in South Africa and the role of religion in agreeing with and opposing legislation that prohibits such relationships. Moreover, no study exists that focuses on the daily experiences of interracial families in a country where such relationships are criminalized.
The Sample
The study focused on the experiences, perceptions and challenges of race relations against the background of previous legislation designed to segregate different racial groups in South Africa. The studies mentioned above are mostly located in the field of psychology and deal with psychological issues arising from interracial relationships.
The Interview Process
Wendy Munroe said that living in the colored community protected her from much of the ugliness of apartheid. You had no legal rights, you were a minor in the eyes of the law, and you needed to be freed.
The Profile of Research Participants
Conclusion
While the phenomenon of racial segregation governed by laws was not unique to South Africa, the South African policy of apartheid was unique in that it claimed a Christian basis for the separation of the races. This chapter will examine the extent of the support, or lack thereof, that the six families experience in their various churches.
The Kent Family
A few members of the Anglican Church were friends of the family and often visited the family's home to pray. According to Jack, "the Anglican Church and the Pentecostal Church were pillars of strength for me and my family during the dark days of apartheid".
The Govender / Smith Family
I told my parents I didn't want to go to church anymore because I didn't think Christianity was a good thing. However, Gail was able to attend church with her children occasionally when they visited her extended family.
The Gray Family
The Naidoo Family
She said not only was she absolved that day, but it was also the beginning of a process that reunited her family and re-established her relationship with the Catholic Church. The priest assured Maria that the Catholic Church solemnized mixed marriages and that marriage in the Catholic Church was a sacrament.
The Green / Munroe Family
Why should I go to church if the church does nothing that concerns me. If the church cared that much, they would have seen that I was like this because I was insecure.
The Pillay Family
Conclusion
The analysis of the churches' responses to interracial relations in the South African context of apartheid revealed two distinct forms of struggle. How were interracial relationships developed and maintained in Natal in the context of apartheid?
Public Verses Hidden Transcripts
Encounters with Apartheid Law Enforcement
Gail Govender was confronted with the power of the police more than once. According to Dave, it was clear that the police did not expect him to comply.
Community Support
We lived in the Colored area and you can see how I was [points to his unkempt beard and flowing hair]. Maybe he was shocked that I lived in the commune, but how far would he go.
Experiences of Children born in Inter-racial
Then we had to wash off the dye in a huge trough of water in the backyard. In the colored community, it doesn't matter that you are mixed, because everyone is mixed in one way or another".198.
A Gendered Perspective
LN Did you understand the dangers to which black women were subjected during the period of apartheid, based on the mysterious disappearance of the women in your first relationship. LN The burden of caring for the children therefore rested squarely on the mothers.
Conclusion
The micro-narratives of race relations in the context of apartheid cannot be understood without placing them within the grand narrative of the struggle against apartheid. In the face of social injustice under apartheid, participants were able to create a counterculture and counternarratives that rejected apartheid repression.
Covert Resistance
These preachers showed by their actions that interracial relationships were not sinful in the eyes of God, even though they were considered sinful in the eyes of the dominant Church and state. Her experiences in the Anglican Church and with the multi-denominational prayer group to which she belonged indicated that the churches were aware of the different situations faced by people in South African societies under apartheid.
False Consciousness
Lorraine Green experienced the Church as a place where she received support and care, and as a place where she was educated about the ills of the oppressive system of apartheid. Beryl Pillay was strongly reprimanded by her church for breaking the country's oppressive segregation laws.
Conclusion
As a result, some respondents experienced racial discrimination within the black communities in which they lived, as seen in the case of David Kent. Appearance and status were important factors in the way respondents were judged by communities and authorities.
Contribution to New Knowledge
The arbitrary manner in which apartheid police carried out their mandate to enforce segregation laws left room for exceptions to the rule, as seen in the case of Dave Gray. The burdens of raising children and supporting families financially were often left in the hands of black women.
Limitations
Recommendations
That's when my wife, me and the kids went and we saw Gorillas in the fog. She was a seamstress and often made wedding dresses, so we also went to many church weddings.
